Well I was a bit slow on the uptake here. I wondered why the Capsicums leaves were distorting, why the cucumbers plants were not growing well. Well its the thousands of greenfly. Bugger! Never seen a single one before, so where did they come from???

22nd May
Haven't dome anything about this yet largely as I'm not sure what to do. I can't see much option but to brush them off or spray them with soap. No doubt many will die. Does it affect my view of being vegan, ahimsa, and Jain principles, well yes and no. If I chose to eat then I either only eat what they don't want or I kill them rather than have someone else do it via commercially. Maybe its a choice of food, or rather that where there is a choice avoid the killing.

Cleared the river bank west of the boat up to the willow copse today. The river bank upstream has been done, also the fields adjacent such.

See elf.calstock.org.uk/invasive/giant_hogweed for more info.
To download details only: <hogweed.xls> 290kb.

19th May: 12:15
Just brought back the first of today's bags of hogweed. Being a bit late to start some are rather big. One flower stem was clear and there's not much room in bag for two of those. -:- 14:56 Takes forever. Missed breakfast so had lunch, minus the greenfly. Get to the Hogweed is the order. -:- 16:23 Got some big ones at C and there are more. -:- 17:18 Found a few and big @ F. Overall there have been quite a few in outlandish places. However as some of them are quite big they were probably there last year. -:- 18:03 Yeap! May is too late to start as I have to dig and carry big plants. Must make a note to start mid April at the latest.

20th May: 15:01
Finished clearing the copse for the first run. -:- 16:06 Gathered up 5 wayward plants in the 'compost field'.